Listen...Then Do.

Do not merely listen to the word, and so decieve yourselves. Do what it says. -James 1:22

I came to this paragraph of chapter 1 with a little bit of excitement and a lot of familiarity. I've been working through Crazy Love by Francis Chan, and in one chapter he hits this topic pretty hard. Or maybe it just hit me pretty hard. He observes that so often we sit in church, feel convicted about something the preacher says, and then go on with life without ever actually changing anything.

With that message fresh in my mind, I approached these verses. I sat for a few moments. Then I made a few notes in my journal:

Still waiting for James to say something convicting to me right now so I can apply this verse. Not that there aren't other verses in the Bible I can't use until then...

You see, while I had been getting some good study notes from the previous 21 verses of the chapter, nothing had really punched me in the gut to tell me what I need to change in my life. But almost in mid-sentence my pen stopped abruptly.

Hmm...does that make me like one who merely listens and so deceives myself?

Ouchie.

I took a few steps back to try this again.

Ok, so what has James told me to do so far?

• Find joy in trials (v.2)
  -Maybe I should start looking at the tiny trials that bug me through my day since I'm not exactly in the middle of a major crisis right now.
• Ask God for wisdom (v.5)
  -I'm sure not complete in this area.
• Believe God
• Take pride in humility
• Do not let my desires drag me into temptation
  -Hard. Especially when by itself, the desire seems innocent, or is disguised by something else. For example:
  

  -Desire to be done working early leads me to be tempted to take shortcts with my work.
  -Desire to have friendships with my co-workers leads me to be tempted to listen to/participate in gossip.
  -Desire to avoid conflict leads me to be tempted to not speak up and defent Jesus' Name when someone misuses it.

• Be quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger
• Get rid of moral filth & evil; accept the Word planted in me.

Guess that's a pretty applicable list after all.

Now, what am I going to do about it?